When I was still working, during the weekend, I would set aside a few hours to make a variety of dishes so that during the week day, I could just come home from work and warm up something tasty (and relatively healthy) for dinner.
Noodle soup was one of those meals.
My favorite brand of Asian style noodles are the ones pictured above--WuMu brand of wide noodles from Taiwan. They are simply made out of wheat flour, water, and salt. No other preservatives or additives. But if you can't find this brand of noodles, any type of dry Asian egg or wheat flour noodles will do.
Prep as much of the ingredients as you can over the weekend.
For example, boil the noodles over the weekend, toss them with a small amount of sesame oil to prevent sticking, add some soy sauce and oyster sauce for flavor, and store the cooked noodles in the fridge.
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| Boil |
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| Drain & Rinse |
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| Refrigerate til ready to use |
I even washed and chopped up green onions, as well as the Bok Choy (or any other greens you like) ahead of time. The trick for keeping any washed uncooked greens in the fridge from spoiling is to place them between two dry paper towels inside a plastic bag or container.
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| Wash |
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| Store in a Zip lock bag w paper towels in fridge |
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| Wash, chop & store in fridge |
For the protein, make a batch of char sui (recipe link here) over the weekend and slice it up and store that in the fridge. [Or better yet, my friend Glenn lives near a Chinatown that sells the char sui hanging on hooks, so he brought some over for the bowl of "Ramen" pictured above!]
Don't want char sui?
Then make a batch of soft boiled ramen eggs using the Ramen Egg recipe from Justonecookbook and store that in the fridge. Soft boiled eggs are actually my FAVORITE ramen topping.
Really, you can add whatever ramen toppings you want.
Fish balls, corn, mushrooms, bean sprouts come to mind. Just pre-cook them ahead of time and store in a tupperware in the fridge.
With some planning ahead, weeknight "ramen" can be ready in 30 minutes!
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| Homemade Char Sui-store in fridge til ready to use |
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| Optional toppings: Boil and store in fridge til ready to use |
Yields 4 servings
Make ahead Ingredients:
- 6 oz WuMu brand dried wide noodles (or any kind of dried egg or wheat flour noodles, even thin spaghetti noodles if that is all you have)
- 1 t sesame oil
- 1 t soy sauce
- 16 slices of char sui (recipe link here), or store bought char sui as pictured in the feature image
- 4 T chopped green onions (about 2 stalks green onions)
- 1 lb Bok Choy, prepped and washed
- cooked corn kernels (optional)
- soft boiled ramen eggs (optional)
- cooked fish balls (optional)
- cooked wood ear mushrooms (optional)
Ingredients for day of serving:
- 3 T miso (I used white miso, but you can use any kind)
- 1 16 oz can chicken broth
- 6 c water
Make Ahead Procedures:
1. Boil noodles according to packaged instructions. Rinse and drain. Toss noodles with 1 t sesame oil and 1 t soy sauce. Store in a container in the refrigerator until ready to use.
2. Wash and chop 2 stalks of green onions. Store in a clean container in the refrigerator until ready to use.
3. Bake char sui (recipe link here), cool to room temperature. Slice and store in a container in the refrigerator until ready to use. You can freeze any extra char sui if you make the full char sui recipe. If you are using store bought char sui, skip this step #3.
4. Separate out each bok choy leaf, wash and dry. Store in the refrigerator in a zip lock bag with a dry paper towel on each side of the bag.
Procedures on Day of Serving:
1. Combine 6 cups of water, 1 can chicken broth and 3 T miso in a pot and bring to a boil.
2. Add in bok choy and simmer until tender
3. In four individual ramen soup bowls, portion out the pre-cooked noodles. Top the noodles with four slices of pre-cooked char sui and about 1 T of chopped green onions. Microwave each bowl for 1 minute to take the chill out of the noodles.
4. When the bok choy is tender, turn off the heat. (Taste the soup and add a sprinkle of salt to taste. Whether you need any or not will depend on the amount of salt in the chicken broth you used and the type of miso you used. Most of the time, I don't need to add any salt.) Top each ramen bowl with bok choy and any other additional optional toppings such as fish balls, corn, wood ear mushrooms and egg. Pour boiling hot soup over noodles. The hot soup will further warm the noodles and toppings. Enjoy immediately.